Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Disassembled Spirit Vein Willow
Do you need ore materials?
That is indeed a troublesome matter.
"Then if I want to nurture these Golden Horned Ants, how much metal ore is needed per day, and how much is appropriate?" he asked.
The female cultivator shook her head: "If you sincerely want to buy, then I’ll explain more clearly.
If these creatures only needed maintaining to refine ores, I wouldn’t have put them up for sale.
They just like to dig downward; if the ore is placed beside them, they won’t even look at it.
I often need to dig, burying some spiritual materials inside, and then watch them carry each piece out. If not for this, I wouldn’t want to sell them."
"..."
This Daoist friend is quite honest, you have to hand it to them.
You can tell by looking that the Taoist robe this female cultivator is wearing can’t hide her balanced figure.
Stronger than those slender female cultivators, she looks more like a female hero from the martial world than a cultivator.
"Do they only like ore buried in the ground?"
"Yes."
"Alright, I’ll buy it. Here are a thousand Spirit Stones, count them, Daoist friend."
Li Ye casually handed over a thousand Spirit Stones.
To be honest, this thing is truly a bit of a hassle, but luckily he still has the Weichuan Beaver to help.
Those little guys are also good at digging, so at worst, he can ask them to bury some spiritual materials in the soil.
It’s somewhat redundant, but... he’s not the one doing the hard work.
"You’re quite straightforward, Daoist friend!" Seeing the burden finally lifted off, the female cultivator smiled broadly, placing the ant nest into a box while taking out a Jade Scroll to hand to Li Ye:
"This contains my experiences on what spiritual materials the Golden Horned Ants like to eat. You must be careful about them escaping, you need to use some special spiritual liquid to define their range..."
Clearly, she still has quite a fondness for these Spirit Ants, chatting incessantly, making Li Ye feel curious: "Daoist friend, you must really like them, so why put them up for sale?"
The female cultivator sighed: "Ugh, it’s because I have too many, and every day just burying spiritual materials for them takes up a lot of time.
Moreover, my energy is limited; it’s impossible to look after so many, so better to focus on a few nests."
"I see."
"Then I wish you good luck, Daoist friend."
Li Ye picked up the box with the Spirit Ants to bid farewell, putting it into his Storage Pouch, then took out the Jade Scroll to read with Divine Sense in a corner.
The content was quite detailed, at least listing several ores that Golden Horned Ants like, such as Mud Iron Ore and Sharp Gold Ore, described as first-tier ores.
The ant nest has only two hundred worker ants, one hundred male ants, one Ant Queen, and fifty soldier ants.
They need to eat about three jin of ore daily.
Seeing this number, Li Ye fell silent.
If binding all of these requires spending tens of thousands of Vital Essence, wouldn’t it be too much trouble?
It seems these numerous Spiritual Insects are not suitable for him.
Without a doubt, to maximize the power of the Golden Finger, he can only take a qualitative approach.
If he greedily wants to bind many, it might consume an unimaginable amount of energy and Vital Essence.
His experience with raising the Weichuan Beaver made him realize that taking care of Spirit Beasts isn’t simple, requiring much Heart Power.
It’s no wonder in mythical stories, there are only a few famous spirit plants beside the Immortal.
Even Immortals cannot handle too much.
"Since I’ve already bought it, let’s see if I can also buy some ore around here." He stood up and continued exploring.
At the Zhou Family’s banquet, not many were invited, but everyone had some connection to the Zhou Family, and cultivators might recognize each other; plus, there was plenty of food.
Therefore, the whole venue felt somewhat peculiar at times. Li Ye, upon turning a corner, might see two cultivators eating while chatting, with a stall possibly set nearby selling goods.
In such situations, he would smile amicably.
And then continue to look for what he needed.
After about a two-hour effort, he bought a hundred jin of Sharp Gold Ore, which are just basic first-tier spiritual materials, needed for crafting things like flying swords.
Flying swords are standard equipment for cultivators; Li Ye already has a First Tier magic sword in his Storage Pouch.
During this time, he came across some Earth Attribute spirit beasts or spirit plants, but none were satisfactory, and he didn’t find any that could be bound.
Later, he almost gave up hope of finding Earth Attribute spirit plants and spirit beasts.
But while roaming, he unexpectedly discovered a small island hidden among lotus flowers.
This island had only a few scattered stalls, one of which was run by the middle-aged male cultivator who previously sold Golden Red Dragon Carp.
"What a coincidence, it’s you again, Daoist friend. What are you selling today?"
Li Ye approached, greeted, and then looked at the stall.
The stall had some odd-looking roots and half-wilted flowers and grass scattered around.
But it all looked like stuff you couldn’t sell, haphazardly gathered for a mega sale.
Third Uncle Zhou sat behind the stall, engrossed in an ancient book, barely glanced up when a buyer came:
"I don’t know if these are good or bad, take them for a hundred Spirit Stones each if you want them."
"A hundred Spirit Stones?!"
"The Golden Red Dragon Carp you sold me the other day was eighty Spirit Stones each, and these... they cost a hundred Spirit Stones?!"
He is quite good at making money, and since arriving here, he made a lot of Spirit Stones, but that doesn’t mean he will accept such high prices.
Even with a Golden Finger cheat, he can’t just be a fool who pays anything asked.
Haggling is necessary!
But Third Uncle Zhou shook his head immediately: "These items are all brought from Huiya Grotto Heaven. I need to sell them for spending money, if you want, three hundred Spirit Stones for five pieces, five hundred Spirit Stones for eight!"
Li Ye felt speechless all of a sudden; Third Uncle Zhou is really cunning, using such pricing strategies, so if you pay five hundred Spirit Stones, you can take eight.
Although calculating carefully, five hundred turns out to be more expensive per piece than three hundred, he’s clearly trying to make you buy more.
At first glance, it seemed like something, after all.
A true merchant!
But Li Ye indeed felt curious.
He pretended, using Divine Sense to observe these odd spirit plants, trying to judge through Spiritual Qi.
Yet the result was that all these spirit plants were weak in Spiritual Qi, even entirely identical.
No wonder, without Divine Sense estimating through Spiritual Qi, Third Uncle Zhou priced them at a hundred per piece, relying on pure luck.
’If so, don’t blame me for cheating.’
Li Ye began scanning through the panel, and a storm of waves immediately surged in his heart; these different spirit plants were actually parts of the same spirit plant!
[Name]: Spirit Vein Willow·Leaf
[Status]: Disassembled, Dormant
[Mood]: None
[Bindable]: Once fully pieced together, it can bind with any spirit beast that loves spiritual ore veins or Spirit Veins.
So many, in various sizes, all parts of the Spirit Vein Willow—what tier of spirit plant is this?